The following information came from HERE, with some editing and information added. Thanks Christian!

THIS MAY NEED UPDATING FOR THE NEW BLACK CRC CARPET

Brands:

BSR, CRC, Jaco:

Pro One is no longer selling to the public, but it and the brands above are all mounted by BSR and use the same foam. The nomenclature of the BSR vs Jaco/CRC is a little different in a few instances but is otherwise the same. The BSR foam consists of three families, and can be identifed as synthetics, naturals, and blends.

Synthetics - The old school, light weight, easy to true "dry feeling" tires. These include tires like CRC/Jaco Yellow (BSR White), Black, Gray, etc. These tires offer the highest wear rate and lowest grip. Many racers continue to use these nder high bite conditions.

Naturals - These tires are usually the best alternative for low bite and asphalt. They include Pink, Magenta, Double Pink, Lilac (BSR Team Purple), Purple, and other tires. These tires provide a ton of grip, but tend to get sticky in high bite conditions. This rubber does not wear as easily, and the cars will pick up gunk and fibers from the carpet under most high bite conditions. This is especially bad if the humidity is high.

Blends - These are the tires most people run today. They were initially called "JFT foam" by some, as it was believed that the tires were the same as the JFT tires. We can divide the blends further into two groups: high rubber and low rubber content. The high rubber would be the new rear Orange and Red from the BSR family, and the low rubber would be the Green and Blue varieties. When, asked about the difference, John Foister from BSR Tires said they came from the same "family" of foam, but they offered different grip. According to John, the Green/Blue has more bite than Orange/Red, but from track testing Oranges offer more bite than Green (being equivalent to in hardness) when the grip is high and absolutely no grip when it is lower. The Orange foam has a denser pore structure and the tire is not as prone to chunking. It is also important to note is that BSR Blue rears are not the same as the BSR Blue fronts!

JFT:

JFT stands for Japan Foam Tire. They started the new wave of foam tires we are all using now (Blue/Blu, Green/Greene, Dbl Blue, etc). These tires are a little different than the BSR tire family, but work in very similar conditions. They offers four varieties A (asphalt), C (carpet), S (???), and R (???). This does not mean that those types only work on that surface, but this is what they recommend.

JFT uses the same foam for fronts and rears if the color is the same.

A: Used on asphalt, considered close to the natural rubber variety and are named consistently with other natural tires.C: Used on carpet, considered a blend.S: Used on carpet?, tires are ???R: Used on carpet?, tires are ???

For setup, the JFT foam seem to generate more bite than the BSR, therefore the car tends to be a little more aggressive.

Ulti:

Ulti is another Japanese brand that offers an array of compounds. They have their own way of rating tires, and are difficult to equate to other brands. They have 4 different varieties, each in varying degrees of hardness.

J: High rubber content tire, similar to Pink/ Magenta. Soft would be close to a pink. These offer the most bite and are great for asphalt/carpet front tire. (J hard being very popular)X: "Balanced" blend, similar to JFT Blue/ Green. Soft is equivalent to Green, medium to Blue in hardness. Great for carpet!Y: High synthetic blend with lower grip, and is not a very popular variety.Z: A very expensive "special" foam that is supposed to be magic on asphalt. Only make it in soft shore.

European tires:

There are many great European foam tire brands that use their own types of foam, as well as traditional foams. SOmeone with more knowledge about them will need to fill this in!

Tire Diameter:

If you are racing on carpet, you have to evaluate how much grip your track has. If your track is low to medium grip, you can run bigger tires. If you are on higher bite you have to cut them smaller, there is simply no way around it. Bigger tires are needed for asphalt, especially in the rear. The larger tires provide much needed lateral bite.

Carpet (mm):

Low - Medium Bite

Front: 42.0 - 42.5
Rear: 42.5 - 43.00

Medium - High Bite

Front: 40.5 - 41.0
Rear: 41.5 - 42.0

Big Race

Front: 39.5 - 40.0
Rear: 40.5 - 41.0

Asphalt (mm):

Parking Lot

Front: 43.0 - 44.0
Rear: 44.0 - 45.0

Prepped High Bite

Front: 42.0 - 43.0
Rear: 43.0 - 44.0

Tire Saucing:

Most facilities have moved towards odorless traction additives such as SXT. Some of additives evaporate very quickly and some do not. This seems to be something that is also dependent on tire compound and ambient temperature. For example, saucing a Green compound seems like it never dries, especially when tjhe temperature is lower. We have found that wiping the tires off 15 minutes before we go run allows the sauce to cure, which makes the car come in much quicker with Green rears. Blue compounds on the other hand, do fine when wiped off right before hitting the track.

Saucing half front and full rear is a good initial starting point. If the front of the car is too agressive you can sauce les than half, or for a shorter amount of time.

Tire Fuzzing:

In conditions of increasing grip, foam tires will somewtimes get sticky and pick up fuzz and debris from the track. This is highly dependent on the rubber sedan tire that is being run at your local track and the compound/ type of foam you are running on you car. The softer the sedan tire and the harder/higher rubber content in your foam tire, trouble with fuzzing seems more likely to occur.

There are ways to get around fuzzing under most conditions, and usually involves the selection of the correct foam compound. The more fuzz you get, the softer/lower rubber content you want to run.

Examples:
Problem: Car fuzzes with Lilac/Team Purple fronts and car starts pushing.
Solution: Use a softer front tire and or different family of foam. Replace it with Blue or Double Blue front.

You may wonder about other compounds out there and if they might be better, trust me, they probably won't be. Even if there are other tires that can be as fast, the synthetic family wears out really fast and the high natural rubber will probably fuzz on you over an 8 minute run. The blends family seems to be the most versatile foam type available today. They last awhile, and sticking to them will make your process of tire selection simpler.

Tire Charts:

BSR/CRC/Jaco

Contact

Corally

JFT (Japan Foam Tire)

Ulti

Enneti (Xceed)

ELECTRONICS:

ESC:

As of now, ROAR is staying 1S (3.7V nominal; 4.2V fully charged) for 1/12. There are many 1S ESC's with a built in BEC so nothing else is required to power the receiver and servo.

If you don't want to lock yourself into a 1S specific ESC, you do have other options! It is possible to use your 2S ESC without a booster or receiver pack, and the ESC simply supplies the lower voltage. If that does not appeal to you, you will need to use an Rx pack or booster. The Rx pack and booster will both supply the receiver with a higher voltage than the 1S pack.

If you decide to use an Rx pack, MAKE SURE TO REMOVE THE RED WIRE FROM THE ESC PLUG THAT GOES INTO THE RECEIVER!!!

If you choose to use a voltage booster, it works exactly how it sounds. Instead of plugging the ESC into the receiver, it plugs into the booster, and the booster plug goes to the ESC, supplying the higher voltage.

If all other things are equal and all you do is increase droop what characteristic should I expect?

Increase droop means more weight transfer, means more rear droop, means under braking the car transfers more weight forward, gives you more front grip and less rear grip as the weight moved forward. On the front, more droop means on acceleration out of the corner, the weight transfers to the rear, giving more rear grip and less front grip. Hence why i run very limited front and rear droop.

I heard Novak has available top-plates for Novak GTB ESCs to let them run with stock/13.5 setups without the heat sink. I have two regular GTBs that I want to run in 12th scale but wondered if anyone here has bought them from Novak and replaced the sink?

I couldn't find these on the Novak web site catalog. I just want to remove the heat sink and run it without and figured it's best to replace with something made for the top of the ESC.

I heard Novak has available top-plates for Novak GTB ESCs to let them run with stock/13.5 setups without the heat sink. I have two regular GTBs that I want to run in 12th scale but wondered if anyone here has bought them from Novak and replaced the sink?

I couldn't find these on the Novak web site catalog. I just want to remove the heat sink and run it without and figured it's best to replace with something made for the top of the ESC.

You need to have SOMETHING on there, running uncovered ain't one of the options. What several people have done is if you know someone with a milling machine go ahead and buzz the fins off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goingfast

Has anyone experiencing 1S lipo going flat or the batteries power drop after 3minutes mark using the 13.5 motor?

Yup...some guys that didn't have their boosters wired in correctly have the car go into "limp home" mode when the voltage falls below the LiPo cutoff level. Some guys with the LRP even had it happen with the esc was set to no LiPo cutoff, it just has a minimum voltage at which it would work. About two to two and a half minutes in (running 10.5) it was like they'd had a complete battery dump but had only used a few hundred mah from the battery.

You need to make sure your booster (or...shudder...receiver pack) is wired in correctly AND that you've got the esc switch in the OFF position.

__________________
Congressmen should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we can identify their corporate sponsors.

You need to have SOMETHING on there, running uncovered ain't one of the options. What several people have done is if you know someone with a milling machine go ahead and buzz the fins off.

Yup...some guys that didn't have their boosters wired in correctly have the car go into "limp home" mode when the voltage falls below the LiPo cutoff level. Some guys with the LRP even had it happen with the esc was set to no LiPo cutoff, it just has a minimum voltage at which it would work. About two to two and a half minutes in (running 10.5) it was like they'd had a complete battery dump but had only used a few hundred mah from the battery.

You need to make sure your booster (or...shudder...receiver pack) is wired in correctly AND that you've got the esc switch in the OFF position.

My booster wires is correct but I do have to turn on my esc switch on or else the motor won't run...

perhaps can you show me the pic of the booster ,how wires together esc and lipo..thanks

Absolutely no need to run anything different than plain ole steel balls. I build my diffs with them, and if done correctly, you can get the diff locked, and still have light enough action that the diff will just/almost counter rotate with just the resistance of a 13.5 or 17.5 brushless motor installed with correct gear mesh. In fact I don't sand my rings or replace the balls. Just clean it out when I rebuild and its back to glass goodness. I know more than one Mod/SS 12th champion who does the same.

Absolutely no need to run anything different than plain ole steel balls. I build my diffs with them, and if done correctly, you can get the diff locked, and still have light enough action that the diff will just/almost counter rotate with just the resistance of a 13.5 or 17.5 brushless motor installed with correct gear mesh. In fact I don't sand my rings or replace the balls. Just clean it out when I rebuild and its back to glass goodness. I know more than one Mod/SS 12th champion who does the same.